


It All Goes To Pieces

by deathishauntedbyhumans



Category: Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated (Cartoon 2010)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canonical Character Death, Dreams, F/M, Lost Love, Spoilers, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:14:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21976414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathishauntedbyhumans/pseuds/deathishauntedbyhumans
Summary: She may have been eliminated, but Cassidy isn’t going to cross over to the Great Beyond until she says her piece to Ricky.
Relationships: Mr. E | Ricky Owens/Angel Dynamite | Cassidy Williams
Comments: 7
Kudos: 71





	It All Goes To Pieces

**Author's Note:**

> I was trying to nap and apparently that’s not allowed bc all I could think about was writing this piece. 
> 
> Spoilers for (mostly) Season 2 of SDMI, so read at your own discretion!

Cassidy’s basement looks just like he remembers it looking the last time Mystery Incorporated had gathered together inside of it. The walls are covered with slightly-faded posters of ‘80s rock and roll bands and scientific equations, and the table in the middle where they had once settled on a name for the mystery-solving group is piled high with old homework assignments and clues from mysteries they had already solved.

He can’t remember walking downstairs. 

In fact, when he thinks on it, Ricky can’t remember coming to Cassidy’s house at all. He frowns, turning about, finally concerned about the fact that nobody else seems to be around. 

“Hey, E.” 

His gaze lands on Cassidy, all grown up the way he remembers her now, although her face looks more relaxed than it ever had since he’d helped her come back to Crystal Cove. She’s standing by the work station in the corner where their rudimentary lab equipment —“borrowed” from Crystal Cove High, likely never returned— still sits. Her hair is short and stylish, and while there’s no tension in her body, her expression is somehow both fond and gravely sad. 

“Cassidy? I don’t understand…”

She doesn’t mince words; she’s still the same old Cassidy. “You’re dreaming, baby.”

That explains the strange meeting place. “I am?”

That smile gets sadder. “It was the only way I could reach out to you.” She pauses, and then moves towards him all at once. Her lithe form seems to glide across the basement, until she’s standing in front of him, close enough to reach out and touch. “I know you’re scared.”

“This isn’t real.” Ricky has to say it, to reaffirm to himself that this is only a dream. Cassidy reaches out to him, and her hand slides —solid and warm— against his cheek. When he leans into her touch, it’s on some long-repressed touch-starved instinct. 

“I’m dead, E,” she says, and Ricky shuts his eyes tight. 

“No.”

Cassidy’s thumb brushes —soft, warm, soothing— against his cheek, where his cheekbone would lie if it weren’t covered with years and years of misbegotten fat. “It was Pericles’ fault. You know I’d be down there fighting the good fight with you if he hadn’t gotten me out of the way. I don’t have a lot of time here, but I had to say goodbye to you, even if you won’t remember it in the morning.”

Ricky opens his eyes again, because if he keeps them open any longer, he knows he’ll risk crying. He knows somehow, inherently, that Cassidy is telling him the truth. Whether she’s visiting him from beyond the grave, or whether it’s his own subconscious telling him what he doesn’t want to acknowledge as the truth, he doesn’t know, but it doesn’t matter now. 

Cassidy smiles at him again, sadness heavy in her gaze. “I’m so sorry.”

He reaches up, his hand jerking past his own chest, his face, to grab the hand she still has pressed against his cheek. He curls his fingers around hers —soft, her hand is so warm and soft— and holds on as tight as he dares. “Don’t. Don’t you dare apologise, Angel. You didn’t do anything wrong, you— you did everything you could. Out of all of us, you did the most right. You tried to help the kids, you tried to help _me,_ and I—“

“You tried, too,” Cassidy tells him. There’s a note of pride, now, countering that heavy sadness in her tone. “I’ve been watching you, E. I know you’ve been trying.” A dark shadow passes over her face. “And I know what Pericles has been doing to you.” Her free hand reaches around him, pressing gently down his spine until she reaches the base, just above his tailbone. It’s an intimate gesture in and of itself, but the fact that she _knows_ what Pericles has been doing —even if her touch doesn’t hurt here, in this dream where they’re finally together— has him shuddering in her grasp. “You don’t deserve it. Any of it.”

“We really got ourselves into a mess, didn’t we,” Ricky says quietly. It’s not a question, but Cassidy nods anyways. 

The world around them shivers, like a light flickering, and Ricky tenses in Cassidy’s arms. “What was that?”

That sad smile is back on Cassidy’s lips. “You’re waking up. It’s time for me to go, baby. I don’t think I’ll be able to make it back again.” 

“Cassidy.” Ricky grabs desperately at her, releasing her hand to wrap both of his arms around her waist to keep her from moving. “I need you to know— I need to tell you. I’ve always loved you. It’s always been you.” It’s choked, his voice is wavering, but it finally feels _right_ to be saying it out loud. Cassidy cups his face in both of her hands. 

“Ricky, there’s never been anybody else. I’ve always loved you. I’ve missed you so much.” 

When she kisses him soundly, he’s both expecting it and surprised at the same time. He kisses her back with everything he’s worth, until it feels like his very soul —if he ever had one at all— has been ripped from his body and handed over to her. In such a desperate time as this, it’s the only thing he has left to offer. 

The world flickers again and the basement begins to fall away in fragments. Cassidy rests her forehead —warm, soothing— against his and smiles. It’s small and fragile, but there isn’t any sadness left, and Ricky smiles back at her without any heaviness in his own eyes. 

“I believe in you,” she tells him. He holds her tightly and closes his eyes. The moment feels endless; it’s too much and not enough. He’s holding Cassidy, and nothing in the world is right but it doesn’t matter because she’s here, and she loves him, and he’s always loved her right back. He’s incomplete without her, and for the first time, he feels like she finally knows it. 

When Ricky opens his eyes, there are tears on his cheeks. He wipes them fervently and sits up, ignoring the pain in his back from the latent cobra venom in his spine and from the rocky ground digging into his skin. The sounds of picks working against stone rings in his ears, and he frowns. 

He can’t remember why he was crying. 

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos/comments are love! Come scream at me on tumblr @deathishauntedbyhumans!


End file.
